Little Girl and Lost Boys
by eveningthought
Summary: Eliza is not normal by any standards, even the Frog Brother's think she's weird. And through her parent's misguided attempts to normalize her she gets sucked into a very scary underworld. My first fic, rated for some language and future romance.
1. Prologue: Damn Windows

Well, this is my first ever attempt at writing a fic, so please don't expect fireworks! But please do R & R as I would appreciate any feedback given. The main character in this story is of my own invention, but I was inspired to create after watching Firefly and Serenity and being particularly intrigued by the character of River -my character is not a plagerism, she's merely inspired by River. There will be references to the Firefly 'Verse as a tribute to her.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Lost Boys or any of the characters therein, no matter how much I may want to. The only characters I can claim as my own are the ones exclusive to this fic and do not appear in the movie.

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CHAPTER 1:

Eliza looked at the shattered glass strewn all over the floor. She was in trouble. When her parents found out that she had broken another window there would be fireworks. Not the typical "you're grounded, missy" or "You're paying for that", which most young girls would have gotten. No, her folks weren't like that. With them it would be sheer panic that she had done it yet again. They would ask her if she was ok, why did she do it, does she feel the need to see a doctor etc.

You see, this wasn't really a rare occurance, she always broke the window. She broke the same one every few months, she just didn't like that damn window. When she had been 14 she just decided that it was a bad window, trying to keep her inside -it had to go. And once it had been replaced with a new shiny pane of glass, she would leave it alone for her parents sake, if only for a while. But after a couple of months she wouldn't be able to stand it anymore, gleaming at her, and she would break it. This time she had chosen a rolling pin as her artillary. The smiley faced stickers which her mother had put up as a dterent for breaking it hadn't worked.

The glass looked so much better this way anyhow. The sun shone in and caught each little piece of glass individually, turning them inti little diamonds, sparkling happily as opposed to gleaming horribly as one. The kitchen was much more pleasant this way as well. It let the sun and wind in simultaneously on that blistering summer day. Eliza the realised she was staring at the broken glass -not a good idea. What would it have looked like to her parents if they had walked in and saw their daughter standing over the smashed remnants of the evil window, rolling pin still in hand, a weapon of mass destruction (for windows anyway)? She placed her rolling pin onto the kitchen table and proceeded to take out the dust pan and brush from the closet. She may have like d smashing that window, but she now had to clean it up. it was only fair. She used to never clean it up, but she always felt so guilty afterwards for her parents. They were the ones paying for it time and time again, at this stage they were on very friendly terms with Alex, the window guy, his family had even been invited to their barbeque a couple of weeks ago.

She quickly cleaned up her mess all over the floor and worktops and shovelled the little daylight stars into a plastic ba before going out and cleaning up the stray shards out in the garden. Whe she was done she contentedly sat down on the grass, musing to herself as she plucked blades of grass and let them fly on the wins. She would have loved some dandelions right about now, but they were weeds and this garden was just too immaculate.

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Later on that evening the Croydon family were sitting down at the dinnertable in total silence. Eliza's eyes glanced from one parent to another every now and then. They had to have noticed the window was broken by now, so why weren't they saying anything? Then just as her father, a pudgy, greying man, was finished his food, he looked up and caught her mother's, a short blonde woman, eye. She then nodded and made a nudging motion with her head in Eliza's direction. This, of course was the well know 'Bring-it-up-now' gesture. Here it came:

"Eliza, sweetheart," began her father, "I see you've broken the window again." He didn't sound too upset, maybe it wasn't going to be too bad.

"Sorry," she said quietly, staring at her plate.

"I know, I know," he said, his voice in soothing-daddy mode, "We both know how you feel about the window. We're not angry."

"Yes," her mother interjacted in the same tone of voice, "It's perfectly fine. We understand completely."

Eliza's eyes widened with surprise. No panic? They were ok with it? It didn't make sense. Her eyes darted between her parents rapidly, they simply smiled sweetly back at her. Her hands tightened on the sides of her chair, this was taring to creep her out. She couldn't help over-reacting, after all being a neurotic was the whole reason she had to be home-schooled anyway. The slightest little thing could leave her mind racing like it was now. And hadn't it been neurotica that had made her smash the window in the first place. Fortunately she was able to relax after a moment or two.

"Mom? Dad?" she muttered, rubbing her hands together before readjusting her glasses, "have I been committed?"

"What?!" exclaimed her father, "For breaking the damn window again? God, no!" Eliza breathed a sigh of relief, she wasn't going to an asylum. Instead her mind raced onto her next theory:

_Her food had been kaced with poison._

"What we meant, dear" her mother continued, "is that we were talking to Dr. Donnelly today. He feels your window complex may stem from feelings of isolation..."

_She was being sold into slavery._

"...And that you feel cut off from kids your age. Naturally, I told him about those ballet classes you have on weekends and your French penpal, but he just told me at your age that's not enough. I mean why listen to me, I'm just the mother?..."

_There was horse's head in her bed._

"... but anyway, I asked what he suggested to help and he said that maybe more youth clubs or a part-time job would help. He also suggested mainstream school, but i just said to Hell with that..."

_Grandma was dead._

".. But anyway your father and I decided a part time job could be fun, especially since you'll be leaving for college next year..."

"Well, I actually..." her father began.

"Yes, _we_ decided it" her mother insisted. Her father gave up his suit.

_She was being thrown out the house._

"And so i gave a friend of mine a call and she said she'd love to have you. She runs a video rental store down by the boardwalk, I do their accounts every once in a while. Wouldn't that be nice?" Her mother was currently doing the psycopath/enthusiastic smile that mothers do from time to time.

"Ok..." mumered Eliza, unsure of what to think.

"Good", smiled her mother happily, "You start on Tuesday."

Both Eliza and her father looked at each other, in a moment of daddy-daughter silent communication. His face read 'Don't look at me, I wanted to get you a new shrink'.

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Thank you for reading this! Please, please, please review! I know this chapter seemed a little misplaced but it's all just setting up for introducing the Lost Boys characters back in and getting to know Eliza. I hoped you liked it:-)


	2. Just keep staring

Well, here's my second chapter! Thanks to the people who reviewed my first chapter, your comments means so much and I hope you're still here for the 2nd chapter too. And also thanks a million to my sister, Claire, for proof reading each chapter for me and helping me immensely!

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Chapter 2.

The car came to a halt just a little way fromthe boardwalk, the video store was all the way on the otherside. The sun was beating down and the whole place was full of people, mostly young, wandering around aimlessly and just hanging out with friends. Eliza peeked out of the corner of the car window, she had pushed her seat back as if to hide herself. Her father gazed off in the direction of the boardwalk and shool his head slowly.

"Well," he sighed, "The store is down there somewhere. Have fun."

Eliza just looked at him for a moment or so as if to say "so you really believe that?" before gingerly opening the car door and slipping out.

"Oh, wait just a minute" he said suddenly. Eliza spun around dramatically and slouched down on the car window, "Don't talk to anyone you don't know" he intructed her.

"I don't know anyone." she replied

"Well ok, then" he said, looking for something else to say, "But if a person comes up to you and offers you things called 'disco biscuits' or 'space cookies', you just say no, ok?"

_Nod_

"Oh, and don't eat anything from a stand"

_Nod_

"And no going to the beach at all"

_Nod_

Just then two bikini-clad teenage girls with surfboards sauntered past, headed quite obviously for the beach. Mr Croydon glared at them. He put his hand on his daughter's arm and looked her in the eye.

"Definately" he said slowly, "No going to the beach".

She waved goodbye as his car drove off. He always said the same things to her, even going to ballet classes on saturday mornings and being dropped at the door. She started off down the boardwalk, regarding everything she came across with equal measures of curiousity and suspicion. Of course, it wasn't her first time on the boardwalk, living in Santa Carla your entire life meant you couldn't avoid it. But that was always clothes shopping with her mother or for birthday presesnts. Today for the very first time she was here alone.

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Everyone looked different in every way. From people in leather jackets, to people with multi-coloured hair, to an increasingly large amount of girls wandering around in scanty bikinis and t-shirts, even the ones who weren't exactly the size of models. Not that she was one to judge really, she was no model herself. Of course she wasn't fat, she was what most people call normal sized, trim but not as skinny as she wanted. And if it hadn't have been for the heat she would would have been wearing one of her usual jumpers with extra long sleeves and a skirt long enough to swing around under her knees. Not that she hated the way she looked, she just was never that worried about clothes. She just prefered plain clothes that could suit her activities that she could dress up or alter herself, that was the only way she would be really happy with her clothes, if she decided what went on them, patches, badges, sequins, you name it. But today she was just wearing a plain t-shirt with some sort of logo on it she didn't know and a pair of shorts that went down to her knees, because if there was anything she hated as much as a window it was her knees.

Just as she was musing on all around her, a older looking guy ploughed into her with his shoulder, pushing past.

"Watch it, sweetheart " he laughed moving past, "You'll have to get my attention some other way". A group of similar males around him laughed alongside him.

Eliza stopped in her tracks and just stared at him, partially out of embarrassment and partially out of annoyence. the skin head stopped when he noticed her staring directly at him.

"Got a problem?" he said defensively. She just contiued to stare at him. He began to look confused.

"Fine, sorry. I was just kidding" he then said. She didn't break her gaze on him. This bastard would feel as uncomfortable as she did.

"Ok, now cut it out" he said, sounding angrier. She continued regardless.

"I'm fucking serious" -she maintained her gaze. He then turned to his friends. "let's just go" he said. As they walked off she heard one of them saying, "that bitch's a spastic, man".

She turned and continued on down the boardwalk, feeling herself turn a little bit red. She had never liked confrontation, but those guys ahd deserved it. Staring blankly had seemed like a good idea as usual. It had always been a good idea in the past. It wasn't long before she got to the store. She entered and found immediate relief in the fact that the store had air conditioning on this inhumanly hot day. There were only a few people wandering around the store, randomly picking up videos just in case they saw something they liked and to avoid the suspicion that they were only there to take advantage of the air-con. There didn't seem to be anyone of the staff memebers nearby, so Eliza stood in the doorway, beginning to feel as if she were a lemon for what seemd like an eternity before she heard a voice from behind her.

"You must be Eliza" said the woman. Eliza wheeled around and faced the woman, a smiling middle-aged woman with short-hair and who was surprisingly pretty for someone her age.

"Mrs Emerson?" Eliza asked her.

"Yes, I am" replied the woman, still smiling, "But please, call me Lucy from now on".

"Um... okay" said Eliza. A brief moment of silence passed.

"Well," started Lucy, breaking the silence, "Since this is your first day here I think we'll just put you on the counter, it's not all that difficult, especially when we're not so busy. That okay?"

Public relations? What problems could Eliza possibly have there? Just the actual speaking to people part, really. Still Eliza simply nodded and gave Lucy a meek smile. She thought it best right then and there. Lucy's smiled broadened, "Come on, it'll be fun I promise".

Eliza was brought to the cashiers desk. At the desk there was a boy her age with blonde hair and a ridiculous multi-patterned shirt. He was reading a comic book intently and failed to acknowledge her or Lucy's prescence there.

"Sam," Lucy said to the boy, "This is Eliza, she's going to help you at the register today, alright? And Eliza, this is my son Sam". Sam simply looked up and gave a nod to be polite before turning back to his comic book again.

"Good," said Lucy, "Now, Sam will show you anything you're not sure of and help you out if you need anything okay?" Eliza simply nodded again in reply. Lucy cheesily gave her a thumbs up before heading to the back rooms of the store where she had been earlier. Eliza slowly stepped behind the counter , Sam was too engrossed in his comic book to notice once more. It was going to be a while before she learned how to work the register at this pace.

No sooner had she taken her place behind the counter than a man approached her holding a video box with the word 'rambo' emblazond on it. She thought it sounded like a pretty stupid name.

"Excuse me, miss" said the man, "What can you tell me about this movive?" When all she did was look at him quizzically he asked her another question. "Is just pure action or is there comedy or drama in it at all?"

"Um..." she mumbled, "The man on the box looks angry, so I guess he isn't funny."

"Okay..." said the man, a little bit peeved, "Couldn't you tell me something about the plot? The blurb on the back isn't very informative." Blurb? What the Hell was a blurb? He just made that up, didn't he? She noticed Sam look up from his comic book in curiosity.

"Um... Well, " this was terrible, how was she meant to know about the plot? The last moive she had watched was 'Gone with the Wind' and that had been months ago at this stage.

"Listen" interupted the man abruptly, "You're not doing a very good job of convincing me to spend my cash renting this movie. How can it be you work in a video store and can't tell me anything at all about this movie?"

"Dude", Sam suddenly piped up out of the blue, "She's a chick. Girls don't watch Rambo. And what plot? It's an action movie. 'Sides she's only been here 5 minutes"

Phew, what a relief. At least she didn't have to deal with that man anymore. Who would have thought that the badly dressed boy would have been a life-saver?

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Well, I hope you all liked it! This chapter was basically just to introduce back in some of the characters from the movie and show Eliza intereacting with other people (badly, I might add). The Rambo reference is shamelessly plugging the Frog Brothers I know, but lets just call it '_foreshadowing', _okay?

And please R & R.


	3. Must Kill Rambo

Hello! Once again I want to thank everyone for their very kind reviews, they mean alot to me since this is my first fic:-) I only hope I won't disappoint you with future chapters. I know it seems as if I'm updating alot but that's only because I'm on mid-term break so i have alot of time on my hands. I'm going to have another chapter printed up before the weekend is out and I have to go back to school. When school starts I'm going to try to update weekly if possible.

But anyway... enough about me, back to our story:

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Chapter 3:

Sam dealt with the peeved customer with almost ease, by being effortlessly charming and charismatic. He even managed to clinch the sale somehow. Eliza in the meantime had resolved to sitting down and staying very quiet on the nearby stool. She sat as still as possible. She felt so embarrased, she couldn't even deal with a problematic customer who's problem wasn't even that difficult. Any courage she may have had that day to deal with her newfound independence had been used up staring at a skin head - a situation which, looking back now, would have been better to just ignore. This kind of situation always seemed so easy before when she ran over it in her mind, but as soon as it had popped up for real she had gotten totally lost.

Tha man thanked Sam for all his help and then turned to leave with his ridiculously titled movie. As her turned to leave, for a brief second he glanced at Eliza. Now, it wasn't an angry glance, or a snooty glance, or even a mocking glance, it was breif nano-second pause probably acknowledging the fact that she was still there. It had been miniscule, but it was just enough for her. She felt her throat tighten. Once again every horrible and strange possibility ran through her mind: She would get fired, her parents would freak, she would be stuck in the house forever...

"Don't worry about it" said Sam, not even noticing the colour drain from her face, "Not all of the customers give you the third degree". Her returned his attention to his comic book, some sort of grisley cartoon with grim and bloody pictures dotted here and there on it.

Eliza's hands gripped the side of her chair so tightly, her knuckles turned white. She tried breathing deeply to calm herself down but all that succeeded in doing was making her want to cry. She couldn't believe it, she was going to cry 5 minutes into her first day because of some rude man? She hated over-reacting like this again. She managed to force herself not to cry but taking a deep breath and holding it in. She was determined not to let her anxieties get the better of her this time, she had to be grown up about this. Unfortunately the fact that she was still holding her breath worked against her...

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The next thing she knew she was sitting on a chair in a cluttered and uncomfortably small office.

"Eliza, honey? Can you hear me?" she heard Lucy say. She looked up and sure enough Lucy was there, bending down in front of Eliza to be eye to eye with her. All Eliza could bring herself to do was nod. "Well, thank goodness" Lucy smiled at her, "You gave Sam and a few of the customers quite a scare there." Upon hearing this, Eliza looked at Lucy, slightly perplexed. Lucy saw her confusion and continued, "Sweetie, you fainted. Remember?"

'Oh, God', thought Eliza to herself. How much more embarrasing could things have gotten? Fainting after five minutes because she couldn't answer someones question, that was bad, even for her. Of course, the holding of the breath mustn't have helped... She must be more socially inept than she had though originally. She then realised she was staring directly at a concerned Lucy while lost in this train of thought. Fantastic. Now she must really look like a psycopath. She needed to say something quickly before it got worse.

"Don't tell my parents, please" came the first words out of her mouth. It was a good starter, if her parents found out there would be a whole world of problems to face. She loved her parents, by all accounts they were great, but if they heard about this she would be stuck inside and sheltered forever. And as the day had proven to her that would have just rendered her even more of a basketcase.

"Well..." said Lucy, sounding unsure. This really seemed like the sort of thing parents should be told about, but from the looks of it her parents seemed over-bearing enough. "... Okay, I won't tell them. But only so long as you don't scare us like that again." Eliza nodded in agreement. How she would manage doing it however, she wasn't fully sure.

_Maybe hiding the Rambo tapes...?_

"You know what?" piped up Lucy, having an idea, "Why don't you help me out in the storage room for a little while? Just until you felt more comfortable." Eliza nodded again. That seemed like a much easier option: _Cut this Rambo off at it's source..._ She immediately stopped this train of thought, she had to be serious about this.

Lucy's smile broadened. It seemed to Eliza that all Lucy did was smile no matter what. She liked that, laughter lines were more comforting than worry lines. Lucy helped her to her feet and brought her to the storage room. It was a plain room filled with lots of heavy looking steel shelves filled with unending rows of tapes in clear packaging with labels on them saying things like 'Goonies' or 'Pink Panther'. it made her wonder if all movies had bad names. Lucy hurriedly filled her in on the the job, fairly simple really, get handed a video box, find corresponding label, put tape in store brand box, hand to clerk, put empty movie box on 'out' shelf. Not exactly rocket science. There were other jobs also, such as inventory, accounts and organisation, but Lucy assured her she wouldn't have to do any of that. Lucy then left her seeing as it was still early and not many people were there, to go and help Sam at the front desk.

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"Sorry, but you're stuck with me now" Lucy chimed to Sam, ruffling his hair as she steped behind the counter.

"Dammit", Sam replied, mocksincerely. He didn't mind spending time with his mom, he had always thought of her as being much more easy going than most moms anyway. He wouldn't go so far as to call his mother 'cool', what 17 year old would? But any woman who had almost turned out to be the bride of Dracula had to be a little hipper than other mothers.

"I put Eliza in the storage room anyway" she continued, "I feel so sorry for that poor girl, she must have gotten so overwhelmed. I really shouldn't have put her on desk firts thing".

Sam rolled his eyes. His mother would feel sorry for anyone. "You think?" he replied.

"Sam..." there was a cautionary tone in her voice, "be nice, okay?"

"Sorry" he answered, dragging out the word for emphasis, purely ironic, of course.

"Well, you should be" Lucy continued, "I know she seems a little shy right now, but I'm sure she's a very sweet girl once you've gotten to know her."

"For a basketcase" Sam concluded.

"Sam! Just stop it, what if she heard that?" Lucy exclaimed.

"What? From the back rooms?" he replied, " Besides, what kind of person freaks out like that after they can't answer a question? That's not normal, mom."

"Sometimes, I swear," she placed her hands on her hips at and stared at Sam, "Your turning into your grandfather, or worse, Michael when he was your age."

"Except for the part about drinking blood."

"Sam!" shushed his mother. There were somethings she never wanted to talk about. Understandably her dating a man who wanted to kill her and her family while her eldest son saw the dark underbelly of immortality was one of those things. She simply stared at Sam again.

"Sorry, mom" he replied quietly, this time sincerely.

"But anyway" she said after a moment or two, "back to my first point. I would urge you to try and be a little more understanding in future. from what I got from hat girl's mother, I can see why she's a little shy."

"What?" he asked

"Well, she has been home-schooled ever since she was nine years old" Lucy replied.

"Seriously?" exclaimed Sam, "What are they trying to do? Raise a serial killer?"

"I know it seems a little strange, but we don't know the full story, so no being judgemental, okay? Besides, for all we know her parents might have just not liked the schools' system".

"Hey, neither do I" he quiped.

"Ha, ha. Very Funny" she smiled. He knew he was forgiven.

They sat in silence for another few minutes, Sam looking at his comic book and Lucy checking the inventory book. Then Lucy was siuddenly struck wih another idea.

"You know, Sam" she began quietly, " I don't think Eliza has many friends around here".

"So?" replied Sam, he didn't like the sound of where this was headed.

"Well," she continued, "I was thinking, maybe you could introduce her to some people? Help her feel more adjusted. Maybe even the Frog Brothers?

"No way" answered Sam, "If she's scared of normal people then what do you think she'll be like with the Frog Brothers?"

"Sam..."she urged.

"No. Way."

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Well, that was chapter 3. I hope everyone liked it anyway. I've just realised I'm making Sam out to be a complete tool in this chapter, but don't worry he becomes nicer, i've made sure of that.In the next chapter we finally get to meet the Frog Brothers. WAHAY! And then we can begin getting down to the actual thick of the plot in which we bring back the Lost Boys, of course. But I'll not give away too much about that. Thanks again for reading!


	4. Bad Introductions

Well, I'm living up to my promise of updating before the weekend is out. Don't worry, the story itself hasn't been rushed along to meet my deadlines, I've had this chapter written down for a while anyway. I've written up to chapter 8 so i'm good for a while.

Once again, thanks a mil to all the loverly people who've read and reviewed my fic, you've all been so nice and accomodating. But anways -back to where we left off...

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Chapter 4:

Sam couldn't believe he was doing this. How his mother always managed to manipulate him ever so nicely into doing things was one of her greatest skills. Now he was stuck with a girl who seemed like a good candidate for a job as a schizophrenic. Eliza was equally thrilled. She was being pitied by her boss-of-apporximately-3 hours' son. A guy who plainly had never looked in a mirror from the looks of his multi-patterned, multi-coloured shirt. Okay, so she wasn't really one to talk, not exactly being tres chic herself, but my God, at least her clothes didn't require a 'may induce cerebral haemorraging' warning. This was going to an interesting afternoon.

They soon arrived outside of another store, one that looked like it had been last redecorated about 20 years ago, back in 1964. Sam sighed and began walking into it, while Eliza merely continued to examine the exterior. "Come on," he muttered, spotting her staring and pulled her into the store.

Once inside she noticed that it was clearly a comice book store, and a badly organised one at that. 'What a surprise!' she thought to herself, 'Sam had taken her to a comic book store, who could have known?'. It smelled funny too, along with the numerous other problems she could pick up on. She wasn't much of a comic book fan herself, too many pictures, too little dialogue, too much action, not enough plot for her taste. She was much more of a Dickens girl herself.

"Sam!" came a voice from the back. Another boy stepped forward to them. He was tall with dark brown hair and a monotone voice, and dressed like he'd just undergone military tactical manouvers. Eliza unknowingly looked at him with absolute bewilderment on her face.

"Hey, Al" replied Sam, walking forward to greet him, "How's it goin', man?"

"Same shit, different day" the boy replied, before noticing Eliza string at him with a strange look on her face. "Who's the chick? Case of posession?" He said the last part almost hopefully.

"Would you believe it, no" replied Sam, "Alan, this is Eliza Croydon, she works at my mom's video store. Eliza, this is Alan Frog."

"Frog?" she asked, before she could stop herself, confusing Alan.

"Where's Edgar?" said Sam quickly trying to change the subject quickly.

"Out back," replied Alan, "We got a new shipment"

"Cool" exclaimed Sam, suddenly, more animated, "Can I see?"

"Sure, boxes should be open by now," answered Alan. The two moved away from Eliza towards the storeroom, abandoning her amongst the Spidermans. Being ditched -now, who could have seen that coming? It didn't bother her really, she didn't particularly like either of them either. She began scoping her surroundings, moving among the different racks of comic books slowly, collating data. The whole place was extremely badly organised, the comics weren't even alphabetical or numerical order, it was starting to annoy her. Seriously bug her, to say the least. She felt herself compelled to fix things, despite knowing she shouldn't, she couldn't stand this disorder any longer. She couldn't comprehend how anyone could. She had often wondered if she may have had obsessive compulsive tendencies, then she remembered her window issues and her lack of coordination when it cames to clothes. She was fine. She started with a nearby shelf full of Supermans, rearranging them first in alphabetical, then numerical order.

"Um... can I help you?" came a voice suddenly from behind her. She chose to ignore it, she was too busy right now. "I said can I help you?" cam the the voice again, gruff sounding and slightly annoyed. Eliza rolled her eyes, she thought she better answer.

"This place is chaos," she said bluntly, not taking her eyes of her task, totally focused, "I'm fixing it."

"Well," said the voice, sounding more annoyed now, "you're not really allowed to do that, aren't you."

"Regardless,"she replied, "It has to be done. Typographical errors, clerical errors, wrong numbers, geographically incorrect placed shelves, signs with gramatical errors. Do you even know what day of the week it is." Her voice was nonchalant, but blunt at the same time. The conversation was pointless, whether or not this person realised it.

"Look," came the voice again, agitated, "That ain't your job, okay? So just cut it out."

"Has to be done", she replied muttered in a tone which seemed to say 'this guy's an idiot'.

"Just cool it," he said, but this time an arm came down, and pulled her up from her task. She spun around annoyedly and faced her antagonist. He was another boy, stoney faced and angry looking with very bad hair. He was also dressed like a some sort of action figure.

"Hey, what's going on here?" came Sam's voice from nearby. He and Alan walked up towards her and the other boy.

"He's being difficult." Eliza stated plainly, folding her arms in idignation. She wouldn't usually have been so confrontational, as you've seen she's more of a fainter really but this time she was annoyed. Couldn't these people see the utter chaos surrounding them? She was trying to fix things that just _had _to be fixed.

"Me?!" exclaimed the boy, sounding not-so-gruff all of a sudden.

"Ed, what you do?" asked Alan stoically.

"Me?!" he reiterated, "She was messing up the stuff".

"Fixing," she corrected him.

"Look, dudes, I'm sorry," Sam interjected before Edgar could retaliate on Eliza, "My mom made me bring her with me."

"Because I'm friendless," she interupted bluntly, she didn't like Sam trying to make himself seem like a martyr in front of his idiot friends at her expense.

"Yeah..." said Sam, confused as to why she had said what she had just said, "...Look, I just won't bring her back here again."

"Fine with me," replied Edgar.

"But... " Sam continued, "She kinda has to go with us today. Just so I can say to my mom that I tried."

"Fine," said Edgar hesitantly, this was a pain in the ass.

"And you're okay with that?" Alan asked Eliza, a little confused as to why she didn't seem to mind Sam saying all of this. Wasn't she insulted at all?

"I don't like any of you either," she said, a little more defensively than she had intended to be, "You're messy and you all dress badly." She didn't see the point of beating around the bush, she would never have to socialise with these people again, except Sam. All three of them stared at her for a moment. Now they were the ones who had been insulted. Now they knew what it felt like. Although, she did feel a bit guilty for saying it so bluntly, she was supposed to be learning new social skills and instead she was insulting everyone. But Sam had been mean first she reassured herself, so now they were even.

"Ok," said Sam, clapping his hands together, trying to break the uncomfortable silence hanging in the air, Who's hungry?" He felt so embarresed. The Frog Brothers may have not been the coolest guys in Santa Carla, but they were his friends and he had just brought in a nutcase to insult them. His mom owed him big time for this. The brothers both nodded and they all began to head for the exit, when Alan suddenly stopped.

"Wait," said Alan, "We should give one of the books."

"Come on, Alan, " Sam whined, he couldn't believe he was pulling this stunt now. Why did they have to do this to everyone?

"No, he's right, Sam" Edgar continued, pulling a comic from under a shelf. He handed it to Eliza, "Read this, it just might save your life." Eliza looked at the comic, it siad 'Vampires Everywhere!' and had a picture of a monsterous man with blood dripping from his mouth on the cover. _Nice._

"You guys are unbelievable," Sam sighed, no wonder those 2 never had girlfriends. He had known the brothers for 3 years and they were still pretty much the 2 freaks he had met that first night on the boardwalk. And that's just how he liked them. Sure, obviously now other things occasionally became more important than fighting for truth, justice and the American way, such as girls and homework, but essentially the Frog Brothers hadn't changed. Still focused on saving the world. Not that they were fighting evil every night of the week or anything. In fact, since the death of the vampires there hadn't much supernatural activity at all, but the Frogs were still ever vigilent for any sign of darkness.

"Hey," said Edgar, his voice solemn and full of self-importance, "It's our job to ensure that everyone has the necessary protection against the undead." The shooting a disdainfil glance at Eliza, "No matter who they are."

"Undead?" asked Eliza quietly, understandably a little bewildered.

"Vampires and the like," replied Alan, his voice now also solemn, and maybe even a little more monotone than before, "Creatures of the night who's only wish is to tear innocent people to pieces." he was staring gravely at her eerily.

She couldn't believe it. Vampires? Creatures of the night? They were making fun of her! They thought she was some sort of handicap who they could spook easily. She may not have minded Sam's obvious lack of regard for her earlier, she wasn't exactly charming herself, but now his friends were actually were condescending her and treating her like some sort of guillible idiot. Her IQ was prbably more than all of theirs put together! She may have been bolder earlier but this brought back her insecurity and shyness again. Having two people she didn't even know making fun of her and treating her like a fool was just horrible. It hurt. She tried not to let it show but she could feel tears welling up behind her eyes again. _Oh, crap. Not this again._

"Holy shit, dude!" exclaimed Alan, noticing she was upset, "We've freaked her out!"

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Okay, this chapter was fairly short, but at least we have the Frog Brothers again! (Hooraysies!) I know the Frogs and Sam don't seem like great characters at the moment but never fear, they get better. They're all just at the Moody-Michael stage of their teenage years, so don't worry too much. And also I couldn't help noticing how emo Eliza seems in this chapter, but that's just for now and was actually unintentional. In the next chapter all four characters will be alot better. In fact the next chapter is probably the funniest so far (well, my sister thought so anyway) so at least we have that to look forward to! And don't worry, the Lost Boys will be reintroduced eventually.

But now I actually need your help. I want to hear what you guys want to read. Any suggestions at all would be great, but here are a few ideas I was having which I'd like to get feedback on:

1) Alan gets a girlfriend or at least a crush, but not Eliza, he's always the overlooked Frog so I thought it would be a good idea.

2) Edgar or Sam, which should develop a relationship (albeit a strange one) with Eliza? I have certain ideas about it, but I'd like your opinions.

3) Should Eliza have a backstory as to why she was homeschooled/why she's so socially awkward?

Once again thanks for reading, it means alot! Let me know what you think?


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